WAUKEGAN TESTS ANOTHER REVIVAL PLAN

Waukegan's ambitious downtown redevelopment plan -- construction of a performing arts center, hundreds of condominiums and even a hotel and convention center -- is certain to face many obstacles. But the biggest challenge by far for this industrial Lake County city will be to convince potential investors that this time, the plan will work.

Investors all say the same thing, says State Sen. Terry Link, D-Vernon Hills. "They say, 'We've seen plans one through 17. When we see some action, then we'll start investing.' "

Over the last two decades, the redevelopment of downtown Waukegan has been planned and planned again. While the city has the same Lake Michigan vistas as its tony North Shore neighbors, it has enjoyed neither their wealth nor their planning acumen.

Redevelopment plans were born and died as mayors came and went and developers sought out greenfield sites to the west that offered better highway access and fewer environmental concerns.

"There's been a lot of talk, a lot of task force studies, but nothing has ever gotten off the ground," says Gerald Schaper, a commercial real estate broker with ERA Callaghan Blandings Schaper in Waukegan.

In its heyday, Waukegan's downtown was a vital shopping area. But with the opening of malls to the west -- Lakehurst and Hawthorn in the early 1970s and later in Gurnee -- the retailers departed, leaving behind a collection of social service agencies clustered around the Lake County government building.

At the same time, the waterfront industries that once formed the community's backbone began a steep decline, cutting production and closing doors -- and leaving behind a significant cleanup.

The latest plan, in the works for about three years, includes building an entertainment district around the downtown's long-shuttered Genesee theater and encouraging residential development on what is now a parking lot overlooking the lake. It also calls for a full-service hotel and corporate training facility or convention center.

'The time is right'

The city in 1998 created a tax-increment financing (TIF) district in the blocks surrounding the theater and encompassing a large portion of the city's factory-filled waterfront.

After "three years of table-setting," says Russell S. Tomlin, executive director of the city's recently re-formed Economic Development Commission, the area is poised for a turnaround. "Everyone agrees the time is right," he adds.

Mr. Tomlin points to the city's success at attracting Chicago-based Kaiser Developers Inc. to build 250 to 300 condominiums on a city-owned lakefront parcel, a project expected to cost between $30 million and $50 million.

Attracting residents to downtown would give the area the 24-hour-a-day traffic needed to spur retail and restaurant development, planners say. It also could attract investment interest in the $26-million theater project.

But critics say the development effort is not attuned to Wau-kegan's strength as an industrial center.

The land scheduled to be developed by Kaiser, for example, is marred by nearby concrete silos and smokestacks. "The view is nice, but what does it look down on?" says Mr. Pickus. "Old factories."

Also, critics say, neither the condo nor a performing arts center would do anything to encourage the nascent development around the Lake County Court Building, near several buildings bought and rehabbed by attorneys to use as law offices.

Funding the program will be difficult. Mr. Tomlin estimates that the condo project in the TIF district initially will provide the city with about $33 million to finance other improvements in the district. But that is a small fraction of what eventually would be needed, says Raymond J. Geraci, the former mayor of Highland Park who shepherded that nearby community through a major downtown retail/residential redevelopment. "Thirty-three million dollars is the tip of the iceberg," he says. "In Highland Park, we put $40 million into a single block."

A different approach

Mr. Tomlin believes that this time around, the efforts will succeed because Waukegan has worked to encourage public involvement and has hired a team of professionals instead of relying on civic-minded volunteers. While the years already spent on the plan have yielded few brick-and-mortar results, Mr. Tomlin remains optimistic. "We have interest (from developers) in this, but we don't want to move too fast. We want to do it right."

But even some of Waukegan's biggest boosters concede that there is a long road ahead. Mary Walker, president of the Waukegan Downtown Assn., has seen other plans unravel. "I don't have any guarantees this one is going to work," she says.